Development of the next generation Automatic Surface Whale Detection System for Marine Mammal Mitigation and Distribution Estimation
Abstract
The use of loud hydroacoustic sources, such as naval sonars or airguns as used in marine geophysical prospecting, has been increasingly criticized for its contingent negative effects on marine mammals and was even implied in some stranding events. To minimize possible risks, competent authorities now regularly request the implementation of mitigation measures, including the assessment of potential shifts in marine mammal distributions or density after naval exercises. This fundamentally depends on a good prior knowledge of the marine mammal distribution in US waters as well as in other open oceans. Moreover, increasing concern that ship-strikes threaten marine mammal populations has boosted interest in reliable marine mammal detection technologies to avoid ship-strikes of large whales. This became particularly clear in 2017, when 17 of hte ~470 remaining North Atlantic right whales died. At least 6 of these deaths are believed to be due to vessel collisions. This high death rate was declared as an unusual mortality event by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Currently, marine mammal detection is mainly achieved by human marine mammal observers, who visually scan the ocean s surface from the vessel and/or by passive acoustic monitoring systems. Neither approach is feasible for fishing and pleasure vessels, fast ferries or autonomous vessels. Furthermore, visual observations are only possible during daylight hours and require numerous observers to guarantee continuous observation; therefore, visual observers for mitigation purposes are only implemented on seismic and naval vessels. Furthermore, autonomous vessels will soon become larger and more numerous (Dean P., 2017), increasing the need for technologies that allow for the detection and avoidance of large whales. My overarching goal is to develop a system that is capable to detect, localize and identiry marine mammals from ship and can be used by non-experts with minimal installation requirements, while retainign self-learnign capabilities. I propose to pair the previously proven approach of marine mammal detection using thermal imaging systems with more sensors like RADAR and real-time weather information, to increase reliability of detections, while reducing false positive alerts to a level this technology becomes useful for autonomous vessels. Initial development and installation on WHOI s own coastal vessel RV Tioga, which spends ca. 114 days at sea, will allow us to constantly improve the systems performance. After successful deployment and operation of the first prototype we aim to deply the system on whale watching vessels around Cape Cod, which record every whale observation they encounter. This allows for continuous field testing by non-expert operators, as well as long-term durability tests. Once proven that this technology has the capability to effectively reduce ship-strike and effectively monitor and document marine mammal exposure to sound, it has the potential to become a standard tool, much like today s radar, which is installed on all commercial and, most, large pleasure craft.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Aug 20, 2019
- Source ID
- N000141912669
Entities
People
- Daniel Paranhos Zitterbart
Organizations
- Office of Naval Research
- United States Navy
- Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution